Scott Johnson (I’m sorry, I refuse to refer to bloggers by their blog handles; it’s part of my “in, but not of” approach to the blogosphere) has a very thoughtful post on Natan Sharansky and the differences between politicians and dissidents.

I’m not certain that I agree with Sharansky 100 percent on his assessment of what George W. Bush is trying to do in the Middle East, but that’s only because I remain unconvinced that democracy is universally applicable across all cultural borders.

(Mind you, I’m open to the possibility that it is. But it seems to me that, at best, the jury is still out on this maxim.)

Two items catch my attention:

(1) Apparently Disney has decided to make Toy Story 3 without Pixar. That’ll probably work out well. Maybe even as good as when Coppola decided to do Godfather III without Robert Duvall.

(2) A group of greek lawyers are threatening to sue Warner Bros. over the Oliver Stone movie Alexander. Apparently, they maintaint that the great Greek never, umm, went Greek. If you know what I mean. Hopefully we’ll get an update from Galley Friend Pallas C.S. before the day is out.

As is fitting of someone who’s never been mistaken for a bright young thing himself, I take a dim view of the bright young things always being touted at places like the New Republic and the Atlantic Monthly (the latter which, nevertheless, I think may be the best magazine for politics of any of the general magazines).

Anyway, reading Noam Scheiber’s article in this week’s issue of The New Republic only confirms this prejudice of mine. He’s written an entire article bashing what he believes the White House is going to do with Social Security. Every contact the White House has had with Congressional Dems on the issue of Social Security becomes a scene of political theater in Scheiber’s telling. It’s one of those pieces that’s so one-sided you can’t imagine the author even believes it.

Not since Dana Milbank wrote a piece on the front page of the Washington Post, bashing the Bush-Cheney ticket for what he said would turn out to be one of the most negative campaigns ever, have I read anything this baseless, preemptive, and, well, petty. (Okay, that may not be true since the river of crap always runs high.) But, judging from the New Republic’s cover story on how the deficit issue is going to lead Dems out of the wilderness, I’m concluding that frantic wild-ass-guessing about what’s really going on is going around the office over there like a bad bug.

Just received a PDF of a new e-publication called The Bullpen. Hilarious, Onion-like, corporate newletter parody. First item reads: “—New York, NY Research analyst Micahel Lamatina upgraded unattractive floater secretary Katy Mishaud from”fugly” to “bangable” Tuesday, citing his lack of sexual activity for the past nine months.”

I’ll post any links as soon as they have em.

M.E. Russell, who now holds the title of Best Film Critic in America You Don’t Know About (Yet), snuck into a supposedly critic-free screening of Seed of Chucky. He lived to tell the tale and write a funny little essay.

I finally yield to the Pro-Goss Super Posse, which consists of Steve Hayes, John McCain, David Brooks, and now Matt Continetti. Continetti reports that Michael Sheuer (that’s “Anonymous,” to you) has revealed who it was at CIA who gave him “carte blanche” to criticize the president in his books: None other than former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow.

Harlow reported directly only to George Tenet. Maybe there really is something rotten going on at the Agency.

In response to a question about an earlier post, here’s a quickie description of no-frills Comcast GhettoTiVo:

If Comcast is your cable provider, chances are you can get their DVR service, hereby referred to as GhettoTiVo. It’s operating system is not as elegant as TiVo’s; it doesn’t predict shows for you the way TiVo does; it doesn’t let you fast-forward 30 seconds at a time, the way TiVo does; you cannot program it through a remote location, the way TiVo can. But it does have this advantage: You don’t buy the DVR (Comcast gives it to you) and the monthly fee is cheap (depends on location, but universally cheaper than TiVo, I believe.

This is good because DVR units, like all hard-disk drives, have a natural life span of around two to three years. So if you want TiVo, you have to spend a few hundred dollars to buy the DVR unit and then you have to spend that money all over again whenever if breaks. With GhettoTiVo, Comcast lends you the unit, and when it wears out, will provide you with another, free of charge.

And the good news is, it works.

Stephen Schwartz says that the Falluja operation has been a success. It’s an important piece, you should read it.